


Be Mine?

by morrezela



Series: Be Mine [1]
Category: Supernatural RPF
Genre: Alternate Universe - College/University, Alternate Universe - Werewolf, M/M, Were-Creatures, Werecats, Werewolves
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2015-03-04
Updated: 2015-03-04
Packaged: 2018-03-16 06:21:21
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,080
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/3477710
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/morrezela/pseuds/morrezela
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Jared is a werewolf freshman who decides to go after the elusive, and beautiful, weretiger graduate student: Jensen Ackles.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Be Mine?

**Author's Note:**

> Disclaimer: This isn’t real. The people mentioned belong to themselves. I am receiving no remuneration from this.
> 
> Warnings: None
> 
> A/N: This was for my 2012 Valentine’s Day fic meme.
> 
> All mistakes you find are my own.

Few are the people that have ever managed to turn Jared Padalecki’s head. It isn’t that he is snobbish or self-important. He’s just distracted most of the time. His nose, as far as he is concerned, belongs in a book - not out sniffing for tail.

It works for him. As the second son of a pack leader, he has some clout, but no real title or position. His family isn’t exactly wealthy, and his pack lands are unremarkable. His brain is his only truly reliable resource because he doesn’t come from the kind of pack that promotes second sons to administrative positions and pays them for it.

Their pack bank accounts don’t have that sort of funding. Jared’s father works a job in addition to being alpha. He kept the title for the good healthcare benefits, and he’s only alpha because five of his cousins passed on the gig before him.

It isn’t illustrious, and it sure as hell isn’t prestigious. That truth hasn’t ever done a single thing to keep weres from throwing themselves at Jared. Too many people only care about chasing a title. Even knowing that Jared has no money, they still pursue him because once they’ve had a taste, they can go around bragging that they bagged a werewolf alpha’s son.

It’s sickening, and Jared prefers the solitude of his reliable books and pencils to the unpredictability of the dating scene.

He isn’t antisocial, far from it. He has friends and makes acquaintances easily. Jared is affable and polite and goofy. He just plays up being a bit of a nerd and a geek to keep the vultures away. He’s at college to study, and he has friends that are more than willing to pick up his brush offs when somebody actually works up the guts to ask Jared out.

It is a good, solid plan. Once he has his degree, he can work on getting a stable job, and maybe by that time his peers will have grown up enough to want him for him instead of his father’s title.

But Jared’s plan didn’t include Jensen Ackles. Then again, nobody’s plan would include Jensen Ackles unless they happened to be a teenage girl fantasizing about the perfect man.

But Jensen is gorgeous, and Jared can’t bring himself to care much about daydreaming about him.

A transfer student from another university come to do work on his master’s degree, nobody paid Jensen much attention until his photograph was included in an art student’s photo collage of the campus grounds. Soon everybody had wanted to know who the attractive man was in the picture, and Jared had been reluctantly drawn into the gossip that started buzzing on campus.

While Jensen’s name was known, and the names of some of his friends were easily obtained, not many other details leaked out about him.

If there is one thing that Jared knows from being the son of a somewhat powerful individual, it is that people like nothing more than a mystery to surround their obsession. What they can’t obtain in fact is quickly created in rumors, and soon even Jared’s brain is buzzing with theories and speculations and hearsay that he knows damned well came from no reliable source.

Then, because Jensen is not actually oversold as an enigma, he’s spotted sunning himself in his animal form one chilly Saturday morning and sends the gossips into a frenzy.

While it isn’t unheard of to see a were in its other form at a college that is near so many clans, packs and prides, Jensen’s shape is, like the man himself, a remarkable sight. Having an actual weretiger in their midst is something very rare. Virtually extinct, tiger prides are one of the oldest and strongest in existence. They’re renowned for both their beauty and power, and Jared’s pack title would mean no more to a man belonging to one of those prides than a house cat would mean to Jensen’s feline counterpart.

Jared can admit that is, at least in part, what finally makes him start to fully pay attention to the Jensen gossip. It isn’t that he wants to chase a title or anything like that. He knows how that feels, and doesn’t want to have anything to do with making another person experience that.

But it is nice to think of the fact that to Jensen, Jared is practically nobody. He isn’t going to want anything from Jared, and all Jared wants from him is a chance to be with somebody who is going to treat him like a normal person.

Of course, convincing Jensen of that fact is going to be tricky. Jared knows exactly what he would think if a guy all of a sudden came up to him after having his heritage announced to the general public. He knows what kind of social and political ladder climbers are out there.

If left to his own devices, Jared would definitely prefer the friends first approach. It’s more comfortable and makes for a better relationship. But Jensen already has an entire entourage of friends, and they’re all the same age as him if not a little older. Jared is four years younger, and he isn’t going to look like anything other than a groupie if he tries to befriend Jensen.

He’s never been the pursuer in a relationship before. Of course, he’s never had a true relationship either, so Jared is basically just all around screwed. He figures that he can’t get any worse off though, so he decides that honesty is the best policy.

Or, well, cowardly honesty in the form of not being anywhere near Jensen when he asks him out.

Conversation sweethearts are full of things that nobody should ever say to another person, especially if one wants to impress said person. Jared figures that sending them to Jensen is a sign of his awesome sense of humor.

At least he tells himself that because the truth is that it is the absolute best plan that Jared can come up with. It’s actually kind of sad and pathetic, but he’s got no chance of actual, physical rejection. He doesn’t think that Jensen is going to hunt him down to tell him to buzz off.

So when Jensen corners him outside of the campus commons, Jared is reminded that no matter what rumors he’s heard, he doesn’t know Jensen. Ergo it looks quite likely that Jensen is indeed the type of guy to track down an innocent admirer and shoot him down in person.

“I’m not sure what to say about this,” Jensen says as he holds up the card that Jared sent with his gift of conversation hearts. Jensen doesn’t appear to have the carnations that Jared sent with, but that could just be because the tiger tore them up in a fit of rage or something.

Jared isn’t exactly up on the whole pursuing a relationship thing, but his brother did happen to mention that guys don’t normally get gifts of flowers. Of course, Jared’s brother mentioned this after Jared had already arranged the floral delivery, so there wasn’t a chance to recall the bouquet.

“You could just call me a creeper and be on your way?” Jared suggests hopefully. There aren’t many people around, and Jensen has herded them off in a shaded corner where it is hard to spot them. If Jared has to be rejected in a public area, the spot would be ideal.

Jensen tilts his head to the side a little and looks disturbed. “Yeah… I, look Jared, I’m not exactly available.”

“Okay,” Jared says. It’s a little sad, but getting the brush off because a guy already has a love interest is far better than getting one because he’s weirded out by you. “Well if it’s all the same to you, I’d appreciate it if you didn’t mention this to your girlfriend. I don’t want any bad blood with her.”

Jensen looks a little shocked by that, and Jared doesn’t have time to be insulted by the thought that Jensen thinks that Jared is the kind of guy who wants to start fights when Jensen says, “I don’t have a girlfriend.”

“Okay, so boyfriend then,” Jared agrees amiably.

“I don’t have one of those either,” Jensen tells him like Jared is the confusing one.

“But you just said you were unavailable. Was that letting me down easy? Because, man, you need to at least keep up the story for an entire conversation if you do that,” Jared lectures. He shouldn’t be so hard on Jensen, but he’s an expert at turning down romance offers. He kind of feels that by now Jensen should be better at it.

“I’m a tiger,” Jensen says slowly.

“Uh, yeah, I heard word. That wasn’t what the cards and stuff were about though,” Jared clarifies.

“No, I… I’m not a good person to try to become involved with. My marriage will be arranged for me.”

“Dude, that is sad,” Jared says immediately.

Jensen smiles at that and shrugs. “It is what it is. I kept the flowers. I hope you don’t mind, but… I’m not exactly the recipient of gifts all that often.”

Surprise must dominate Jared’s face, because Jensen smiles that sad, ironic smile again and says, “It is discouraged because it could cloud my judgment. My bodyguards normally don’t even allow me to see things like this.”

“Bodyguards?” Jared echoes dumbly.

“You thought it was normal that a group of men pursuing their advanced degrees to all move to the same college and apartment together after graduation?” Jensen asks.

“Well, I thought it was strange but…” Jared trails off because bodyguards mean that Jensen is a lot more important than Jared thought he was.

“But you just thought we were some sort of clique or codependent group. It’s okay. You’re supposed to think that. I guess that means that we’re all better actors than I think we are.”

“So if you don’t normally see these sorts of gifts, what’re you doing with mine?” Jared asks. He figures that he doesn’t have anything to lose now. Jensen doesn’t seem to be upset by his advances even if he is saying that Jared can’t follow through with them.

“Chad likes you,” Jensen says. “He thinks you’re a great guy, and that I should throw caution to the wind and ‘fucking rebel’ already.”

“Chad?” Jared asks dumbly. Because, yeah, Jared knows the guy and thinks he has potential even though he’s tried to sleep with over half the campus, but he’s at a loss as to why Jensen would be listening to him.

“He’s one of my guards? They don’t all live with me, you know?” Jensen tells him, uncertainty filling his eyes.

Hypothetically, Jared could see the benefit of having undercover guards if you’re important enough to have them in the first place, but undercover is basically a synonym for secret.

“Should you be telling me this?” Jared asks suspiciously. After all, he has nothing to prove that this isn’t just some big practical joke that the rare and beautiful weretiger is deciding to pull on the poor freshman who made the mistake of expressing interest with a Valentine’s Day card, candy and vase full of carnations.

“No,” Jensen answers him, clueless as to the inner workings of Jared’s mind, “I shouldn’t be telling you any of this. But I want to because I also want to be able to go out with a guy and have it be my choice. I want to be able to go on a date without it being arranged for me. I want to have the opportunity to do that before I end up where my life is inevitably going to lead. But I don’t believe in dragging another person into that without being honest with him first. You can’t have forever with me, Jared. But I’m guessing at eighteen that isn’t what you’re looking for.”

“Nineteen,” Jared corrects. And yes, he is looking for forever, but forever has to start somewhere, and he could use some relationship experience himself.

“Practically an old man,” Jensen quips.

Jared smiles a little at that, “I believe that I asked you a question,” he reminds Jensen with a tilt of his chin towards the card clutched in Jensen’s hand.

Relief filters across Jensen’s face. He doesn’t ask if Jared is certain or if he is okay with the situation. He just answers, “Yes, Jared. I’ll be your valentine.”


End file.
